Rampant Bulls demolish wounded Reds

The Bulls were completely dominant in their 61-8 victory over the Reds, running in eight tries against the injury-plagued Queensland outfit at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls made a frantic start to the match, setting the tempo for the rest of the game, and testing the Reds' defence with their big ball carriers.

The Men from Pretoria attacked the flyhalf channel to pile the pressure on rookie flyhalf Dallan Murphy, after Wynand Olivier ran over the young No.10 early on, exposing his defensive frailties.

Both team's re-shuffled their backlines in the second half, with both scrumhalves changing position in the second half. Will Genia was forced to be a reluctant flyhalf for the second match in a row, while Francois Hougaard finished the game out on the wing - where he played for the majority of last season.

In the second half the Reds simply couldn't keep making the number of tackles that were being asked of them, and the floodgates opened. The Bulls' attack was relentless, scoring an amazing seven tries in the final 40 minutes.

The Bulls' positive start to the match was rewarded with three well struck penalties from flyhalf Morné Steyn inside the first 30 minutes, while Reds centre Jono Lance added three points off the kicking-tee for his side.

Off the back of a 5m scrum the Bulls used Akona Ndungane on the angle, but the wing was tackled by Genia and tried to stretch for the line and was short. However, from the resulting scrum Pierre Spies broke off the back and popped the ball to Hougaard. Zane Kirchner hit the line at pace and went over fro the opening try.

Just before half-time the Reds won a penalty from a Bulls scrum, after tighthead prop Werner Kruger was forced to break his bind under pressure. Lance missed the kick at goal, but it was a psychological blow from the Reds' scrum, who had been on the back foot for the majority of the first 40 minutes. 16-3.

The Bulls made the first impact in the second half from the re-start, with some great continuity using Jacques Potgieter and Juandré Kruger to carry the ball up strongly. Hougaard provided quick ball and Steyn puts his arms through a tackle to give Olivier a simple run in for the try.

The Bulls' third try came after camping in the Reds' 22 for several phases, before big Flip van der Merwe mowed over Rod Davies from close range and scored the try. 30-3.

Blindside flank Jacques Potgieter set the game alight with an incredible piece of individual brilliance, breaking through a hole in the defence around halfway, and handing-off Radike Samo and then Davies, all the while looking for somebody to pass to, before scoring the bonus point try for his team.

The Reds finally made it onto the scoreborad in the second half in the 61st minute, as Genia orchestrated an attack from flyhalf. The Wallaby ace sent a long pass out to Ben Tapuai, who got his arms through the tackle to give the ball to Dom Shipperley on the outside. The speedy wing stepped inside to wrong-foot Kirchner, and scored the try.

With Jono Lance off the field with a bad injury it was left to Genia to kick for goal, and his radar was well off target. 37-8.

The Bulls struck back immediately with almost all their replacements on the field. From an attacking line-out replacement scrumhalf Jano Vermaak flipped a pass out to Hougaard, who hit the line at pace. From just a couple of metres out Vermaak picked up and sniped round the blindside and over the line for a try.

Things went form bad to worse for the Reds, as a textbook rolling maul from the Bulls rumbled forward at pace, with flank CJ Stander carrying the ball at the back and scoring the home side's sixth try. 51-8.

Stander went straight back to work, creating a turnover and getting the ball away to Arno Botha to crash into the defence. Replacement flyhalf Louis Fouché took the ball on the blindside and put JJ Engelbrecht in to space, and the speedster needed to second invitation to cross the whitewash.

Next it was Hougaard's turn to break the line and with the Reds' defence at sixes and sevens, Olivier passed the ball out wide for Bjorn Basson to slide into the corner for yet another try.

Man of the match: Bulls flyhalf Morné Steyn showed a few sublime handling skills and had a 100 percent record with the boot, while Juandré Kruger and CJ Stander were monstrous up front. However, our vote goes to outstanding flank Jacques Potgieter, who made big tackles, carried the ball up with venom and scored a fantastic individual try.

Scorers:

For Bulls:
Tries: Kirchner, Olivier, Van der Merwe, Potgieter, Vermaak, Stander, Engelbrecht, Basson
Cons: Steyn 5, Fouché
Pens: Steyn 3

For Reds:
Try: Shipperley
Pen: Lance

Teams:

Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Wynand Olivier,  11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 CJ Stander, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Willie Wepener, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Jano Vermaak, 21 Louis Fouché, 22 JJ Engelbrecht.

Reds: 15 Rod Davies, 14 Dom Shipperley, 13 Jono Lance, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Luke Morahan, 10 Dallan Murphy, 9 Will Genia, 8 Jake Schatz, 7 Beau Robinson, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 James Horwill (captain), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Greg Holmes, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Ben Daley.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 James Slipper, 18 Radike Samo, 19 Van Humphries, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Nick Frisby, 22 Nathan Eyres-Brown.

Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa), Stefan Breytenbach (South Africa)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

By Timmy Hancox